Film Review #15: The Aristocats

Whenever I watch a movie or TV show, it either makes me feel good or it makes me physically sick to my stomach.  But then, there are those that just show up and have absolutely no impact on me whatsoever.  This small category doesn't have many in it's group, but most of the Disney animated films of the 1970's fall into this category.  The Aristocats began this trend.  Although the film isn't particularly bad, it isn't exactly good either.

Plot: In a fancy sector of pre- WWI Paris, a rich madame lives in a grand mansion with a mother cat and her three kittens.  As she has her lawyer write her will, her greedy butler overhears that the cats will inherit her vast fortune before him.  So the butler, Edgar, drugs the cats and abandon them in the French Countryside.

The mother cat, Duchess, encounters a cocky and overconfident tomcat named Thomas O'Malley, who agrees to take her and her kittens back to Paris, while encountering many various strange and odd characters on their way back to Paris, without knowing about their greedy butler's plans.

What's Bad?: The film is paced like The Sword in the Stone, but even then, the film is like watching two snails race across a ruler.  The characters are bland and lack personality, even Phil Harris's cat.  This especially lets me down, since Harris did such a great job with Baloo in The Jungle Book.

The villain is very weak, but still comic.  The music is forgettable, the story is boring and predictable, and the scenes tend to drag on without much payoff.

What's Good?: With that being said, the payoff (in this case, the comedy) is pretty funny.  The two dogs that chase the butler twice are actually really funny.  The scenes with the Alley Cats are kind of funny, but the rest of the scenes are pretty boring.

Overall: The film is forgettable, but not horrible.  It might be a good film to put on for your kids, but the film is kind of a bore to sit through for adults.  Films like this really tick me off, because since most of the Disney films are for both family and friends, this film is for kids only.

Report Card

Hero:                           C+
Heroine:                      B-
Villain:                        C
Side Characters:        C
Songs:                          C
Musical Score:            C-
Animation:                  B-
Themes:                      C+
Story:                          C
Special Effects:          C-

Final Grade:               C